After all the withering insistence that he is putting his image before his
sport and that he is not facing up to the realities of 2012 pressure, Tom
Daley could only offer a feeble riposte off the high board at the new
Olympic Aquatics Centre, as his harshest critic launched a fresh tirade.

After Britain’s Olympic poster boy and his diving partner, Pete Waterfield, finished a disappointing seventh in the World Cup 10 metre synchronised ­platform event here, British Diving’s defiant performance director, Alexei Evangulov, had more home truths for Daley and his handlers, insisting: “Maybe now people will trust me because I’m an expert.”

Russia’s former head coach had caused a major stir by suggesting Daley needed to reduce his media commitments and focus more on his training or put his medal hopes at risk. It prompted the 17 year-old’s management team to deny his claims with some irritation.

But after watching the pair blow any chance of a medal with one terrible dive out of six, and recognising that they were a world away from the brilliance of the victorious Chinese pair, Evangulov, who has evidently been feeling like public enemy No1 after his criticism of the golden boy, said: “When I said the Chinese train three times harder than Tom, a million people have been saying 'Alexei, you’re a liar’ – but now you can see.

“I wasn’t upset when people had a go at me, it’s a normal reaction because Tom is a real star, like a pop star. But the difference between me and the other people who love him is that I am an expert. We can win but I know how to do it. They don’t.

“It reminds me of the situation in Russia with Anna Kournikova. She looked pretty and made a promising start but the media exposure meant she never got to be the best.”

It was hard to disagree with the garrulous Russian on a night like this. Daley did indeed get the pop star treatment, receiving a rapturous welcome from a full house of 3,000 underneath the exotic ceiling of this dramatic arena, with the scene set for the schoolboy to sprinkle the sort of Olympic stardust which Jessica Ennis and Sir Chris Hoy had sprayed around in competition at the weekend.

And after qualifying a little haphazardly in sixth place in the morning preliminaries, for a while during an absorbing final it was easy to believe Daley and his experienced 30-year-old partner might do just that as they lay in bronze medal position after four rounds, looking on course to emulate the women’s synchro pairing of Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow 24 hours earlier.

Then came 1½ seconds of calamity. Attempting their most ambitious and difficult dive, a forward four and half somersault, the pair fouled up spectacularly.

Waterfield’s execution was poor but Daley’s was nightmarish, with the youngster barely having come out of the fourth somersault and was completely crooked as he hit the water. From third, they plummeted to ­seventh. It could only be interpreted as a loss of nerve at the vital time.

Daley shrugged afterwards that “it was just one dive that we missed and that’s what happens in a sport like diving. That was the difference between winning a medal and not.” Evangulov disagreed; he felt even without the dismal dive they would still only have been fourth at best.

Daley, unaware of the latest barbs being aimed his way, afterwards defended his training regime and also noted the recent injuries suffered by both him and Waterfield, as he insisted: “I know that I’ve been putting in all of the hours I can. Unfortunately today wasn’t our day.”

Waterfield, too, felt compelled to rush to his partner’s defence. “We didn’t miss a dive because Tom has been doing too much media. We missed a dive because we’ve had setbacks with injuries. It’s you guys [the media] who are saying it’s all about the media. You keep bringing it up.”

Except it was Evangulov who brought up the subject again here. It is actually easy to feel some sympathy for Daley because he has always handled himself, from his wunderkind days, with remarkable commitment and maturity.

Indeed, Evangulov wanted to express what a fan of Daley he remained but made it clear that he felt he still wasn’t doing enough work.

“Of course, the Mexicans [who finished second last night] train 12 times a week. Tom has increased his training from six to nine times a week, which is already a great achievement as he’s at school, but his rivals are professionals, they train as full-timers. As for the Chinese. Unbeatable.”

This was not even China’s first-choice pairing but Yuan Cao and Yanquan Zhang were so dazzling, they did not even seem to cause the merest splash on entry, finishing 62 points clear of the Britons. But Evangulov wanted to end his address on a positive note.

“Apart from the Chinese, the rest we can compete with. I’ve said Tom is a genius and I believe in him and Pete. We can still win a medal.”